Spring-loaded 14-gauge biopsy guns come with a ballistics impact similar to that associated with firearms, according to an editorial in the current issue of the European Journal of Cancer Prevention (EJCP). As a result, cancer cells may scatter, causing damage to healthy tissue and/or spreading disease.
"Cancer cell displacement is a common side effect of core biopsies as these artifacts are increasingly observed in tissues previously exposed to instrumentation," wrote Dr. Jaak Ph. Janssens and colleagues in the EJCP. Janssens is the journal's editor and is based at the Limburg University Centre in Belgium (EJCP, December 2006, Vol. 15:6, pp. 471-473).
The editorial outlines the potential for cell displacement during 14-gauge tru-cut biopsy, the pathological findings of cell displacement, and how core biopsy instrument design reduces ballistics-related tissue damage.
The authors acknowledge that ballistics is rarely an issue with large-core biopsy systems (8-12 gauge). A previously published paper by Dr. Laura Liberman's group at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City found that epithelial displacement was uncommon after stereotactic 11-gauge directional vacuum-assisted breast biopsy (American Journal of Roentgenology, March 1999, Vol. 172:3, pp. 677-681).
By AuntMinnie.com staff writers
December 27, 2006
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